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THREE PEOPLE HAVE been killed and seven injured following a school shooting in the US city of St Louis in Missouri.
The gunman, a former student of the school, fatally shot a teacher and a teenage girl, and wounding six others before police killed him in an exchange of gunfire.
He broke into Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Monday morning, warning, “You are all going to die!”
He was killed by police in a shootout at the scene.
The attack just after 9am forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety.
Speaking at a news conference, Police Chief Michael Sack said fast actions by a security guard, along with police officers who “ran to the gunfire” helped end the shooting before more people were killed or hurt.
Police identified yesterday the shooter as Orlando Harris, who graduated from the school last year. Police said they did not have a possible motive. They said earlier in the day that it was not clear if anyone had been targeted.
Sack said the 19-year-old had no prior criminal history.
Authorities did not name the victims, but the St Louis Post-Dispatch identified the dead teacher as Jean Kuczka. Her daughter said her mother was killed when the gunman burst into her classroom and she moved between him and her students.
“My mom loved kids,” Abbey Kuczka told the newspaper. “She loved her students. I know her students looked at her like she was their mom.”
TV reports said officers entered the area with guns drawn shortly after 9am. Crime tape was placed around the school and parents were directed to another school building to reunite with their children.
St Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said seven security guards were in the school at the time of the attack, each stationed at an entrance of the locked building. One of the guards noticed the gunman trying to get in at a locked door, but unable to. The guard notified school officials, who contacted police.
Sack added: “It was that timely response by that security officer, the fact that the door did cause pause for the suspect, that bought us some time.”
He declined to say how the man eventually got inside, armed with what he described as a long gun.
Central Visual and Performing Arts shares a building with another school, Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience.
Police told TV stations at the scene that six people injured included one person who suffered cardiac arrest, and the others suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds.
No further details about the injuries were immediately released.
One student, 16-year-old Taniya Gholston, told reporters she was in a room when the gunman entered.
“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” she said. “And I was trying to run and I couldn’t run. Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.”
Another student, Nylah Jones, said she was in maths class when the gunman fired into the room from the hallway. The gunman was unable to get into the room and banged on the door as students piled into a corner, she said.
Teacher Raymond Parks was about to teach a dance class for juniors when a man dressed in black approached. At first, Parks thought the man was carrying a broom or a stick. Then he realised it was a gun.
“The kids started screaming and running and scrambling. He walked directly into the two doors and pointed the gun over at me because I was in the front,” Parks said.
For some reason, Parks said, the gunman pointed the gun away from him and let Mr Parks and the dozen or so students leave the room.
“That’s what I don’t understand. He let me go,” Parks said.
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Good to see a reporter standing up to Obama et all – and his wish to curtail free journalism .
He should be supported .
Obama waging war on Journalists – the last thing US govt .wants is freedom of Press .
Aristotle tells us that tyrants hunt down those who oppose their power- and Obama is such a tyrant – as have most of US Presidents – and getting worse .
Who downvotes this…….it’s spot on.
If there’s no freedom of press, there’s no alternative opinion.
Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive. [...] And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment — the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution — not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants” — but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.
John F Kennedy
Passing flawed plans to Iran is the least bad thing they have been accused of
Great courage shown, fair play.
The New York Times is a paper which has colluded with the US Government numerous times in oder to appease it. They have previously withheld knowledge from the public on drone strikes at the request of the US Government. While objectivity can never be truly attained in newspapers it should be strived for.
A surprise heart attack our car crash on the way for this man !!
Writing long articles criticising the whistleblowers and then defending his right to keep his sources secret. His sources are no different to the whistleblowers. The standards and hypocrisy of some journalists is nauseating.
And the hypocrisy of the CIA?
While I don’t trust NYT generally, I’d certainly defend their right to resist a request (/threat) from the shameful, clandestine and murdurous CIA, which goes against their constitutionally enshrined journalistic privilege.
Could u give links to support your accusations ??
Was that question for me or Ryleigh, Jim? I’m presuming the latter.
Obviously, there are plenty of links to support my accusations! There are also admissions.
Yeah it’s been more or less proved they are Criminals
In
Action
for Rryleigh – actually your comment was not visible when I wrote
One ‘r’ only.
Naomi Wolff wrote and spoke about all of this a few years back.
I think she said that the final straw for her would be when the government started locking up journalists.
Obama is the toothy, smiling, affable version of his dipshit Cheney-front predecessor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H20CoqyoqtI
The NY Times is an anti-Irish news paper
It is a well known organisation,with very very dodgy people working for it.The point I am making is that regardless of their activities exposing them via a secret source that could be an agent of a foreign agency engaged in a counter espionage mission. The journalist has neither the training or the expertise to handle the information via a public forum…the media. Obscure ,obfuscate and distort information in a logical and rational way is what counter intelligence does to obtain it’s goals.
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